Friday Oct 18, 2013

At the end of last month, I had the opportunity to present a speaking session at Oracle OpenWorld: Database as a Service: Creating a Database Cloud Service Catalog. The session was well-attended which would have surprised me several months ago when I started researching this topic. At that time, I thought of service catalogs as something trivial which could be explained in a few simple slides. But while looking at all the different options and approaches available, I came to learn that designing a succinct and effective catalog is not a trivial task, and mistakes can lead to confusion and unintended side effects. And when the room filled up, my new point of view was confirmed.

In case you missed the session, or were able to attend but would like more details, I've posted a white paper that covers the topics from the session, and more. We start with an overview of the components of a service catalog:

And then look at several customer case studies of service catalogs for DBaaS. Synthesizing those examples, we summarize the main options for defining the service categories and their levels. We end with a template for defining Bronze | Silver | Gold service tiers for Oracle Database Services.

The paper is now available here - watch for updates as we work to expand some sections and incorporate readers' feedback (hint - that includes your feedback).